What we’re talking about here is HDR. It stands for High Dynamic Range – the ability to grade interior and exterior exposures – and blend these layers (or shots) together. (See samples here)

It has been doable in still photography for some years. These days, most still photography suppliers use some form of HDR in their post processing. Video however, is another thing altogether. The closest video suppliers have come is in matte work; shooting interior and exterior exposures and blending the layers together.

Early trials have been encouraging, albeit time-consuming, both on location and in post. There’s also a few motorized ‘sliders’ at out there that can do two ‘passes’ on video – or time-lapse sequences shot in RAW that can be manipulated in programs like Lightroom.

HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II’s

HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II’s from Soviet Montage on Vimeo.

The problem we are all wrestling with at the moment is time and hardware v $ – to fit the highly competitive real estate business model in Australia. The RED digital cinema camera will deliver an HDRx mode but the price point and time-consuming set-up complexity of these cameras would have to see a marked increase in the price point of high-end real estate videos to be viable.

Perhaps, as high-quality online video takes its rightful place alongside professional high-end photography as a ‘MUST HAVE’ component of every campaign, we’ll see bigger production budgets.

This will allow for the critical time needed on location and in the post suites. The spend on video maybe increased by some dollars being diverted from print to online. In this case, you’ll see the big suppliers going at an option like RED, like a red rag to a bull.

Equally, this HDR capacity will be included in the next release of HDSLR cameras, like the much anticipated Canon 5DMIII. Rumors point to this camera being able to record 5k video to an external recorder.

As for 3D, we can see a day when properties will be presented online and in-room in 3D – and shot in HDR. For 3D-HDR, the future is bright.

Let’s just hope we don’t have to wear shades to see it.

Guest Author: Brett Clements from Platinum HD

It is pointless, however, to replicate the same images and deliver the same message in all collateral. Taking a still photograph of a room, and then slowly panning across the same room is just that.

Pointless.

We run the risk of (a) Insulting the audiences attention and (b) Boring them senseless. Cinematography and photography have unique qualities; you can’t shoot a panoramic ‘stitch’ of a city skyline in low light on video without going to awesome lengths in post production.

In the same instance, a still photograph cannot record the sound of a city street. Just like we need different copy for print and online ads, we need to think differently about how we apply this media in the new medium.

Watching somebody use an ipad for the first time is an enlightening experience; it is not just down to the tactile nature of these screens but the very vibrance of the display.

And these screens are only going to get better; Apple calls it Retina. By developing pixels 78 micrometers wide for the iphone4, Apple engineers were able to pack four times the number of pixels into the same screen size. (http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/retina-display.html)

With richer more tactile displays, there’s a need for a much richer experience.

I believe the focus now needs to turn to what form this content takes on, and how best Agents and Agencies can use it. In the world outside real estate, every TV ‘ad’ is driven by a Creative; an idea to shoot too. This idea compliments the print campaign. The message is the same. The approach, radically different. Today, we have new companions (tactile, smart, mobile devices). And on the horizon, there’s 3D.

As suppliers, we need to think outside the square and not just dish up the same old, same old stills and pans and dolly moves.

We need to think about creating richer, more immersive experiences. As Clients, Agencies and Agents need to demand we start bringing these creatives to the table. As the hardware changes around us, the creative has to evolve.

Guest Author: Brett Clements from Platinum HD

Whilst a lot of these things I mentioned can already be done using a laptop, with the recent launch of the Apple iPad and the low entry price for their product, I can see that there will be a large number of potential uses for the iPad for real estate agents.

Just like a restaurant could use the iPad for taking orders or displaying their menu, real estate agents can use the iPad to demonstrate how professionally they can present a potential sellers home, show comparable sales and create a marketing campaign digitally.

The pricing of the iPad means that Apple have provided an affordable way that an agent can make their company appear more high tech out in the field.

Here’s 10 Ways That Real Estate Agents Could Use The iPad…

• Use it for digital listing presentations

• Show property photos and videos in high definition

• Visit websites for doing CMA’s and show other related sites

• Create a Demo Individual Property Website for a client right before their eyes

• Instant database entry at open homes

• Get directions
  

• Show off real estate iPhone apps on a larger screen
  

• Portable client management

• Show details of current listings to buyers on the run

• Checking email enquiries & setting appointments

The launch of the iPad also provides an insight into where Print Media is heading. The iPad is going to make it a better reading experience for people to get their news digitally, which will ultimately have an effect on the physical distribution of printed newspapers.

Local Press may not feel the same affect for a while, but it certainly could have an impact in the amount of physical printed local newspapers distributed long term.

My hope was that the introduction of digital readers like the Apple iPad and Amazon’s Kindle may help to bring the real estate print media prices down to a more affordable level for agents and sellers, but unfortunately it may actually increase.

With the iPad, the newspaper experience will become more engaging, plus the digital newspaper will help to drive more website traffic across to an agent’s website than the printed version ever has. Whilst physical distribution will be down, the electronic distribution of newspapers could explode via the iPad & advertising space will become more popular, hence more expensive.

Whilst I see some great uses for the iPad for real estate agents, there are some developers who feel that Apple could have gone a lot further with their development, eg here’s 8 Things That Suck About The iPad.

I’m sure Apple will include a number of these extra features to the iPad very quickly, just like they did with the iPhone.

But for now it looks like they have made something that is very appealing to the majority of people & have priced it affordably enough that the iPad should end up becoming just as popular as the iPod and the iPhone.

While agents will have to wait to get their hands onto an iPad, over the next few weeks there is a perfect opportunity for agents or franchise groups to prepare a digital listing presentation in time for its delivery.

If you can think of any other uses for the iPad I’d appreciate any other thoughts or ideas.

Disclaimer: I am the director of a company that provides Individual Property Websites for real estate agents.

One of the most neglected aspects of a property listing is the team member photo. I do not know how many times i just look at a photo and think to myself ‘this guy looks like a creep’. If they are not holed up against a wall with a shadow with an off centred tie then they are an extreme close up photo and it is painful to look at.

Agents have to understand that in many cases this is your first impression with a potential client. So why not make it a good one?

You have a number of choices for a photo shoot, you can either do it yourself, or hire a professional.

I have said in the past that owning a digital camera does not automatically make you a photographer and if you can afford to hire a professional do so. If you are going to do it yourself, spend some time playing with the camera and go onto the many websites that can help you to become a better photographer.

http://photo.tutsplus.com/
http://digital-photography-school.com/

Hiring a professional

If you ever hire a professional let them know (in writing) that we are in the 21st century and that once you pay for the photos, you own them. Otherwise, you may get some nasty surprise as Intellectual Property by natural law falls back to what they call the ‘artist’ and that isn’t you! So get the contract in writing or hire a student studying photography from the local college.

Do it yourself

It is not hard, but think creatively. My favourite agent photo of all time is a McGrath agent named Bethwyn Richards. I love everything about this picture. The natural blue hues in the background and her completely natural way. I like Bethwyn already and isn’t this the point?

In fact McGrath.com.au are the yardstick when it comes to photography of team members. Yes, it sometimes looks like they belong to a modeling agency and some guys on that website look like they spend more time on their hair than Ivana Trump, however, you have to admit, they do look good!

So, you can take photos like this yourself and as you can see McGrath use the same photo cropped for their portrait shot as they do the landscape shot.

Here are some standard sizes to work with: Landscape (250w x 125h pixels) and Portrait (100w x 125h pixels ).

It also makes sense to look at how the photographer took the photos and learn a couple of simple rules from them.

Rule 1: The left – right rule is a simple one, never place your subject in the centre of the photo, artistically it is boring. Either place them to the left or right of the image and let the background become part of the image.

Rule 2: The background rule is another simple but artistically effective rule, mix up your background, as you can see from the top image we have the angle of the hill mixed with the blues and greens of the trees with some yachts thrown in for good measure. The lower office photo mixes in glass with some splashes of color with the chairs.

Rule 3: The chest rule just gives all of your photos consistency so that they all look good on one page.

Rule 4: Distance is another rule that allows for all of your team members to look the same and the team page to look consistent. These photos above are a perfect distance.

Rule 5: The natural smile rule does take some time and possibly many photos, remember the subject must be comfortable.

Do not assume the person must smile with their teeth as some people are very sensitive about their smiles. So just take a number of photos and the choose the most natural one out of the batch.

There are some other things to follow and I cannot stress just how important it is to get to know your camera and digital photography.

Here is some software to use with photography

Picasa (100% Free)
Photoshop Elements

On a slow news day late last month an eagle eye reporter of the Dominion Post newspaper in New Zealand reported on the shocking crime of turning the sky blue! The local Open2View real estate photographer had the temerity to use the same cloud formation on different photos and the Dominion Post caught them in this despicable crime.

Showing there is not much bigger than a politicians ego local MP Clayton Cosgrove chimed in on the issue when approached by the paper for comment that agents should show the property in “its ordinary environment” and “I just think it’s a bit on the nose. The more straight up you are, the better you are.”

Showing what a hypocrite he was, the MP who apparently proposed the recent real industry reform bill to parliament seemed to have no problem when he said that photoshopping photographs  ”could make me look slimmer and give me more hair”. Seems this kiwi pollie thinks misrepresenting his own looks is fine, but changing a sky blue is a little smelly!

Nobody suggested that the house was changed in anyway nor its surroundings. Nobody removed power lines, blotted out a bus stop at the front of the property,  added a garden that wasn’t there or anything else that misrepresented the property in anyway. They turned the sky blue, thats all.

The whole sordid affair started doing the rounds here in Australia after a local blog picked up on the story and it was retweeted on twitter.

Lets all put this in perspective shall we.  Nobody seems to want to hold Domain to task for altering photos that clearly misrepresent the property but everyone gets up in arms over a blue sky.

Domain does not display photos in the same aspect ratio that they are provided in and will warp the images.  Now when the photo is in landscape the differences are only minor and unless you see the original image side by side it is often difficult to tell. It is a little like when you go to your friends place and they have a fancy widescreen tv displaying a 4:3 or letterbox picture. It looks pretty close but everybody seems to have put on a little weight. So a small house appears bigger and a crowded room appears a little more spacious.

It’s when photos are provided in portrait orientation  things really start going astray.  Lets look at the same property on three different portals.

Domain's display of 352 Edgeware Road, Newtown

Realestate.com.au's version. Not quite so spacious as Domain's is it

Myhome - Again, it is tiny compared to Domain's offering

Domain need to clean up their code and stop distorting photos because its a dangerous game to be misrepresenting properties these days with some government departments looking for scalps… even big ones that can afford to pay big fines.

Pictures clearly have an advantage over words. Agents deliver images to potential customers that may have no means of viewing that property. Why not tag these images correctly.

This is what a typical image code would look like [img src="”/images/192a/94736.jpg”" alt="”image”/"]. Clearly, a search engine robot has no way of categorizing this image. There is no information for it to file this image under other than it is an image.

Here are 3 simple procedures you or your photographer can do to get your images ranking on the first page of search engines.

Lets create another format of the above image code and add some information that will enable the image to be categorized.

1. give the image the name of the property address including the suburb
2. utilize the “alt” tag and put the property address including suburb in
3. reference the code directly from your website

The new code should look like this:
[img src="”http://www.yourwebaddress.com.au/images/27-oakland-drive-sydney.jpg" alt="”24"]

For added points include the image width and height.
[img src="”http://www.yourwebaddress.com.au/images/27-oakland-drive-sydney.jpg" alt="”24" width="”400”" height="“300”/"]

I have used this technique successfully. Type “mobile phone websites” in Google and go to the images tab. I have images in positions 1, 4, 10 and 14 on the first page.

You can order this eBook for $15 USD (about 17 AUD) by clicking here. I ordered my copy and it is around 70 pages and a great read and I picked up some great tips. I think this is a must have for any agency that takes its own photography.

I am a strong believer that the future is all about content and presentation of your vendors listings to separate yourself from your competition.

Below is a table of contents of the eBook

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Why did I Write this Book?
Who is This Book Written for?
What do You Need to Know?

Chapter 1 Photography For Real Estate
What is Real Estate Photography?
Why are Good Real Estate Photos Important?
Where and How are Real Estate Photos Used?
How do You Learn Good Interior Photography?
The Front Exterior Shot is the Most Important

Chapter 2 10 Essentials of Real Estate
1-Understand the Purpose of Each Photo
2-Use a Wide-angle Lens to Shoot Rooms
3-Simplify Images
4-The Primary Exterior Shot is THE Most Important Photo
5-Render Interiors Light and Bright
6-Render All Vertical Lines Vertical
7-Straight Lines Must Appear Straight
8-Don’t Let Burned Out Windows Distract
9-Remove Color Casts
10– Use Only Horizontal Mode Photos for Real Estate Websites
Moving Beyond These Rules

Chapter 3 Choosing a Real Estate Camera
Why a Wide-angle Lens is Essential
Compact Point-an-Shoot or DSLR?
What About Megapixels?
Can I Get Wide-angle Shots on My Compact Digital Camera?
Digital SLRs and the Crop Factor
Recommended Cameras and Lenses for Interior Photography

Chapter 4 Lighting
How to Get Good Interior photos
Why use External Flash?
What Flash Should You Get?
How Should You use External Flash?
Using Multiple Flash Units and Continuous Lighting
How do I Work with Only Natural Light?
How do I Avoid (or Fix) the “burned out window” Problem?
How do I Handle Color Casts and White Balance?
Why are the exterior Shots of a Home so Important?
What are Some Guidelines for Photographing Exteriors
Case Study 1—Shooting a Contemporary Lake View Home
Case Study 2—Shooting a View Home on Acreage

Chapter 5 Shooting Exteriors
Why are the exterior Shots of a Home so Important?
What are Some Guidelines for Photographing Exteriors
Case Study 1—Shooting a Contemporary Lake View Home
Case Study 2—Shooting a View Home on Acreage

Chapter 6 Shooting Interiors
Guidelines for Photographing Interiors
Case Study 1—Shooting with Natural Light Only
Case Study 2—Shooting with an External Flash

Chapter 7 Photo Software
Guidelines for Photographing Interiors
Case Study 1—Shooting with Natural Light Only
Case Study 2—Shooting with an External Flash
What Software Am I Going to Need?
What Software Should I Use to Manage and Organize My Shots
Why Should I Use an Image Editor?
What Image Editor Should I Use?
What About the Ethics of Modifying Photos?

Chapter 8 Fixing Common Problems
Using Image Editors
How to Tune-up Exposure
How to Straighten Falling Walls
How to Get Natural Looking Color
How to Increase Saturation
How to Fix Curved Walls (Barrel Distortion)
How to Remove Distracting Elements
How to Deal with “burned-out” windows
How to Bring Back Sharpness to Your Photos

Chapter 9 Virtual Tours
What is a Virtual Tour?
Why Use a Virtual Tour?
What are the Common Features of a Virtual Tour?
Panoramas
Creating Flash Slide Shows with Lightroom
CDs and DVDs as Buyer and Seller Gifts
How Do You Create a DVD Slide Show of Your Photos?
How Do You Create a DVD Slide Show of Your Photos?

Chapter 10 Trends in Real Estate Photography
The Need for Speed!
Web Advertising
The Use of Video
The Use of Virtual Tours is Surprisingly Low
Increasing Use of Flash Slide Shows
Competition in Real Estate Photography

One I came across today was www.photographyforrealestate.net and this has some wonderful advice for real estate agents. Let’s be honest. I think the big let down for many agents is copy and photography and this site should help you better understand photography – a must read for all of your photography team.

I do know more and more agencies hire professi0onal photographers, but for those that do not – this is a great resource.

A few years ago I was looking for a property to lease in the eastern suburbs of Sydney and one thing I came to realise was that so many agents were just too lazy to take appropriate photography if any at all.

I really wondered what their vendors were paying for. Many of the images I came across were not a very accurate portrayal of the property. People leasing properties are on the whole allot more picky than people buying a property.

So here are some rules all agents should follow.

1. Complete the picture.
Make sure you take at least 5 images of each and every room and feature of a property and then choose the best one from the five. This will mean the site user is given an accurate tour of a property.

2. Image Size
Set your digital camera at 800 x 600 pixels for web images. If take correctly these will be good enough for most print work as well, however if you require larger images then make sure you resize images for the web. Most of the portals including realestate.com.au allow for images up to 800 x 600 pixels. The reason for this size is because still about 25% of people have monitors that cannot view anything above this. In the future this size will increase to 1024 x 768 pixels and I a sure portals will support this size once the 800 x 600 users go below the 10% mark. Almost every monitor sold in the past 5 years has a minimum 1024 x 768 pixel resolution.

Note: Pixels are the little dots that make up an image on a screen.

3. Image Quality
Make sure you do not choose out of focus images or images that are useless for consumers, just because you took the photo does not man you have to use it.

4. Quality NOT Quantity
Some agents have too few images and some too many, one good shot of each room and feature is enough for the consumer to get enough of a feel about the property. So try to think of your photography as a tour of the properties rooms, features and views.

5. Your Camera
I have always said that agencies should have the same camera for each of their sales people (if you do not use a professional photographer). This is because you will naturally have one or more people that take the time to understand the camera and its features, this will help the other users who are having problems.

Overall: I think you have to understand that people viewing property photography are also potential future vendors so with this in mind, think of the impression you will leave on them.

On your way to your next property photo shoot take the time to think about what you want to achieve for your vendor and for your agency.

Here are some things to consider.

1. What are the features of the property.
You should try to take 4 shots of the features of a house. The photos on your website should be a tour of the property that informs and excites potential buyers.

2. The best go live
Pick only the best quality images. Remember poor quality images reflect badly on your companies professionalism and without knowing it, could cost you vendors.

3. 800 x 600
All your photos should be the standard which is 800 x 600. In the coming years this might increase to 1024 x 768 pixels (the bigger the better) but most portals do not support this because their are still around 30% of the consumer market with only 800 x 600 monitors.

4. Include your website address and logo
No Agent does this, but I believe that any image that goes live on any portal other than your own website should have a small clean logo with your domain name clearly marked. Do not make it overbearing, it should be clean and crisp and located in one of the corners (pick a corner and make it consistent through all of your images). This will promote the listing and your website and costs nothing but a little time.

5. Minimum 5
Each property listing should have a minimum of 5 quality images. This informs site users. Sometimes for listings such as land it is difficult, but in the information age the last thing you want to do is waste time and frustrate potential buyers and your staff by wasting both their time.

Note: Never, ever upload poor quality images.

Example: (Note this was designed by myself and not the client)